Statistician (Biology)

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement, including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. BASIC REQUIREMENT: Degree: that included 15 semester hours in statistics (or in mathematics and statistics, provided at least 6 semester hours were in statistics), and 9 additional semester hours in one or more of the following: physical or biological sciences, medicine, education, or engineering; or in the social sciences including demography, history, economics, social welfare, geography, international relations, social or cultural anthropology, health sociology, political science, public administration, psychology, etc. Credit toward meeting statistical course requirements should be given for courses in which 50 percent of the course content appears to be statistical methods, e.g., courses that included studies in research methods in psychology or economics such as tests and measurements or business cycles, or courses in methods of processing mass statistical data such as tabulating methods or electronic data processing. OR Combination of education and experience – courses as shown in above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. The experience should have included a full range of professional statistical work such as (a) sampling, (b) collecting, computing, and analyzing statistical data, and (c) applying statistical techniques such as measurement of central tendency, dispersion, skewness, sampling error, simple and multiple correlation, analysis of variance, and tests of significance. FOR THE GS-11 LEVEL: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience (equivalent to the GS-09 level) that may have been obtained in the private or public (local, county, state, Federal) sectors which demonstrates: Demonstrated experience with developing statistical or computer simulation models of animal populations and animal disease, especially Bayesian models implemented in Nimble or similar software. Regular use (in multiple studies) of a programming language (e.g., R, Matlab, Python, C++, or similar) to write scripts or functions that run simulation models or statistical inference routines and/or develop interactive visualizations of model output. Demonstrated experience with leading research studies from conception through reporting of final products, where the studies involve developing modeling approaches that integrate data from field studies. Professional experience with communicating technical information, especially from complex mathematical models, both orally and in writing to practitioners in wildlife management or animal disease management. Demonstrated experience with leading peer-reviewed articles, including more than one first author articles. OR 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree in biological sciences or applied statistics. Equivalent combinations of education and experience are qualifying for this grade level. TRANSCRIPTS are required if: This position requires specific coursework or a degree in a specific field to be basically qualified. You are qualifying for the position based on education. You are qualifying for this position based on a combination of experience and education. This education must have been successfully completed and obtained from an accredited school, college, or university. COMBINATION OF EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE AT THE GS-11 GRADE LEVEL: Applicants may have combinations of successfully completed education and specialized experience to meet total qualification requirements. The total percentages must equal at least 100 percent to qualify for that grade level. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Serves as a Statistician within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Responsible for simulation modeling, statistical analysis, and/or ecological/epidemiological modeling, using your knowledge of spatial ecology, population ecology, disease ecology, epidemiology, and/or wildlife management and proficiency in at least one programming language. Also frequently communicates with a variety of stakeholders.